Guiding principles
IFAD's 10 prinicples to enable poor rural people to escape from and remain out of poverty through more productive and resilient livelihoods and ecosystems.
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Tools
Best practice statements for IFAD supported loans and grants in the context of environment and natural resource management. Find out more about it here.
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Community participatory mapping for better natural resource management.
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Case studies
Payment for environmental services in Asia and Africa
Recent work in Africa tested innovative techniques for promoting PES through negotiated environmental service contracts with poor communities based on the principles of 'willingness to provide services' and 'willingness to pay'.
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Energy from waste in rural China
By turning human and animal waste into methane for lighting and cooking, an IFAD-funded project in China’s Guangxi Province is reducing poverty and also helping reduce methane’s more damaging global warming effects.
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Green growth through value chains in West Africa
In Sao Tome and Principe, IFAD helped turn around the dying smallholder cocoa sector, which had been suffering following the collapse of world market prices.
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Participatory rangeland management in the Syrian Arab Republic
In the Syrian steppe (or Badia), IFAD is working on participatory rangeland management with local communities to reduce herders' vulnerability to climate change and restore the long-term productivity of rangelands.
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Planting for a harsher climate: regeneration and conservation in the Malian Sahel
Population pressure and a changing climate are are eroding the natural asset base of poor rural people in many parts of Mali, and contributing to a situation of escalating environmental degradation, hunger and poverty.
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Blogs
IFAD supports reframing of rural poverty for Rio+20
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Empowering Indigenous Peoples’ Voices at Rio+20
On April 2012, IFAD approved a grant to support Indigenous peoples’ (IPs) full and effective participation in the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20).
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Conservation agriculture success? Institutional Partnerships with research and farmers at the center
Today we visited a thriving smallholder farm as well as IAPAR’s research station in Pato Branco.
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Press releases
Rural institutions, tools for social and economic progress
1 March 2012, Rome - Strong rural organizations like producer groups and cooperatives are crucial to hunger and poverty reduction.
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"Food shortage more serious than financial crisis" says Italy's Riccardi
Rome, 23 February 2012 - Andrea Riccardi, Italian Minister for International Cooperation and Integration Policies, said that food security remains a top priority on the world agenda.
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Increasing Gates Foundation and IFAD partnership means more support for smallholder farmers
Rome, 23 February 2012 – A statement of intent to build a stronger partnership between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the International Fund for Agricultural Development...
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Multimedia
Hungry Planet: Rio+20 Special Report
Rising sea levels threaten millions of farmers living in Bangladesh, unpredictable weather patterns in Chad fuel hunger and, in Ethiopia, distribution of high yield root and tuber varieties help farmers increase production in times of drought. 
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Disappearing Kiribati - Sea level Rise
The Pacific Ocean is scattered with hundreds of islands facing the impact of climate change. But one place particularly affected is Kiribati, an island state formed by 33 narrow strips of land barely above sea level.
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Gender in Agriculture
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The coming storm
Eighty per cent of Bangladesh lies on a floodplain less than 5 metres above sea level. As sea levels rise and seasonal storms become more severe, millions of farmers could lose their land and livelihoods. Watch video
Agriculture and poor rural farmers in heart of Rio + 20 agenda
Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP, explains how the global food and agriculture system needs to change. Watch video
Dom Hélder Câmara – Agro-ecological vegetable gardens and orchards in Brazil
Learn how project participants moved from manure fertilization to intensive organic composting methods, also taking in new lessons on the importance of crop management, intercropping and intensive irrigation. Watch video 1| Watch video 2
Publications
The Potential for scale and sustainability in weather index insurance for agriculture and rural livelihoods.
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